(By Denis Greenan).
The European Court of Human
Rights said in another landmark ruling Thursday that Italy
violated the rights of a gay couple for refusing to grant a
residence permit to a New Zealander who wanted to live with his
Italian partner in Italy.
The court ordered Rome to pay the couple damages of 20,000
euros.
The ruling will become definitive in three months if none
of the parties appeal.
The Strasbourg-based court ruled in favour of Roberto
Taddeucci and Douglas McCall, Italian and New Zealand nationals,
born in 1965 and 1958 respectively, who now live in the Dutch
capital Amsterdam.
They lived together in New Zealand until December 2003,
when they decided to settle in Italy because they had both
fallen in love with the country.
After McCall applied for a residence permit on family
grounds, the Livorno chief of police dismissed the request
in October 2004.
The couple successfully appealed against the decision, but
the government managed to reverse the ruling by appealing to a
higher court.
"The restrictive interpretation of the notion of family
member constituted, for homosexual couples, an insuperable
obstacle to the granting of a residence permit on family
grounds," the European Court of Human Rights said in its ruling,
published on its website.
"That restrictive interpretation of the concept of
family member, as applied to Mr McCall, did not take due account
of the applicants' personal situation and in particular their
inability to obtain a form of legal recognition of their
relationship in Italy.
"In deciding to treat homosexual couples in the same way
as heterosexual couples without any spousal status, the State
had breached the applicants' right not to be subjected to
discrimination based on sexual orientation in the enjoyment of
their rights under Article 8 of the Convention".
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